Abattoirs continued paying over £3.55/kg for an R4L steers, with confidence in a strong market for coming weeks.

The official AHDB reported price jumped 5p/kg to £3.61/kg for a R4L steer.

This put the premium over the England and Wales average up from 4.2% to 4.4% – the highest since mid-January.

Deadweight cow prices rose another 6p/kg to £2.56/kg for an O-4L carcase.

Warmer weather and longer days seems to have kicked off grass fever to a certain extent, with store prices strengthening at marts.

The official lamb price remained strong at £4.57/kg across GB.

The live market was trading at around £2.09/kg for medium-weight lambs which is up 1p/kg despite the end of Easter demand.

Heavier lambs rose again by 1p/kg on the week to £1.93/kg liveweight. Numbers of lambs came into the live ring collapsed as over 12,000 fewer were traded with only 13,212 going through the live ring.

This will have helped keep the price up.

There were 79 new-season lambs sold through marts in the last week, most went through United Auctions and were paid £2.50/kg. Cast ewes through the ring fell 400/head to 3,851 as the average price fell £3/head to £67/head.